Readers Who are These People?

The College Board recruits high school and college teachers (typically, English teachers) to grade your essay, giving
it a score from 1 to 6. Since two Readers are assigned to each essay, the top score is 12 6 from each reader.
At some point after the test has been scored, your essay, along with everyone elses, is scanned by a computer,
turned into a PDF file and downloaded to an SAT database for eventual distribution to selected Readers.

Each reader receives a batch of essays and begins the scoring process. Now, do you suppose the Readers are going
to grade your essay in the same way they grade class papers; that is, with meticulous attention to detail and a
surplus of red ink? Absolutely not.

Readers get paid by the hour and the more essays they grade, the more chance they have of being invited back to
participate in future essaygrading marathons. Therefore, the incentive for the reader is to move through each
essay as swiftly as possible, spending no more than 2 minutes per essay. Thats right. You spill your thoughts out
under intense pleasegetmeintocollege pressure and your reader takes a leisurely stroll down essay lane grading
your prose in less than 10% of the time it took you to write it.

On the surface this may seem unfair, but you can make it work to your advantage. Knowing Readers prefer to work
fast, you can structure your essay to help them do just that.

Two things are essential in this regard:

Making a good first impression with your opening paragraph
Using clear transitions from front to back throughout your essay so that the reader can follow, Ozlike, the
yellow brick road.
Rules of Engagement
There are several commonlyagreed upon criteria for judging good writing. Collectively these comprise a rubric or a
set of rules employed as a scoring guide.

These include:

Structure your essay must follow the classic fiveparagraph format; that is, an introductory paragraph, three
body paragraphs, and a conclusion
Topic Sentence your intro paragraph must have a clearly defined topic sentence or thesis
Transitions your essay must have smooth transitions (remember, guide the reader down the proverbial yellow
brick road) both between paragraphs and within paragraphs
Subordination good prose style is characterized by heavy use of subordination. Subordination lends variety to
your writing style by replacing short, choppy, subjectverbobject sentences with longer, more elegant sentences
that incorporate dependent clauses.

For example: After refusing to give up her seat on the bus, Rosa Parks inspired the Civil Rights movement. Notice
the long leadin before the subject of the sentence, Rosa Parks, is introduced. Subordination can also work on the
back end of a sentence.

For example: Tupac Shakur was murdered in 1996, a year that lives in infamy for west coast rappers.
Technically, this last phrase (a year that lives in infamy for west coast rappers) is called an appositive, but in this
case, subordination is any phrase or clause that is not necessary for the main sentence to stand on its own.

Flash vocabulary impress the reader with your use of interesting and sophisticated vocab sprinkled throughout
your essay but dont overdo it. Big words that are better said in less flowery vocab are worse. Simplistic.
Concrete Examples no matter how good your writing style, you need familiar examples from American history,
literature and technology to support your thesis. Otherwise, the writing is just hot air. But dont worry; dozens of
sample paragraphs (called pet paragraphs, since youll be responsible for their care and feeding) are available.

These criteria for judging an essay comprise a commonly accepted academic standard. Thats all well and good;
however, it should be pointed out that the College Board, in its infinite wisdom, publicly denies adherence to this
or any rubric. Instead, the College Board advises that each essay will be judged holistically (the parts are
interconnected to the entire essay)

WHAT? Thats right, holistically. In other words, subjectively. Holistically is just a cover, a subterfuge, a sneaky
backdoor admission by the test makers that they wont be pinned down or held accountable for any rubric
whatsoever.

So whats really going on here?

No matter what the College Board publicly proclaims, it doesnt mean that Readers wont be applying the
qualitative rules mentioned above they will, they have to, theyre academics! it just means that another,
strictly quantitative measure will also be applied, perhaps subliminally. That is:

LENGTH

For the SAT essay, quantity seems to count as much as quality. So, no matter how good your prose, if the essay
isnt long enough, your grade will suffer. Its not fair, I know, but hey were here to deal with it. This means
that, no matter what, you have to keep your pencil moving to eat up two pages of white space.
Adam Robinson, Princeton Review founder and SAT guru for over 20 years, advises his students to edge well past
the 400 word mark. I agree with him and urge all my students to meet the 400 word mark for a minimum score of
10 on their essays. For an 11 or 12 (12 being a perfect score) I counsel at least 450 words. Les Perelman from MIT,
one of the official Readers for the SAT essay, had some interesting words to say about length as an indicator of
essay success. In an interview with Linda Wertheimer from NPR, available on the web, Perelman states:
After I was given the (essay) samples at this conference, I went back to my hotel room and started going through it,
and when I got to the ungraded samples, I realized I could score it before I read it because just a certain length was
always a certain score. So being from MIT, where numbers are very important, I counted the words, put the number
of words and the scores into an Excel spreadsheet and discovered that the correlation was the highest Ive ever
seen in test data.

So, there you have it. Not only are you required to write a qualitatively sound essay, applying the previously
mentioned rules of engagement, but youre also expected to chew up every inch of white space available on two
lined pages.

What if you write big, some of my students have asked. Tough luck, is the unfortunate answer. To ensure you get
at least a score of 10 (which, by the way, is very good) you have to write normally or small AND fill up the white
space. Because the essays are graded subjectively sorry, I mean holistically there are, of course, exceptions.
But to be on the safe side, I have all my students write normally/small/maybe slightly larger than usual, and write
fast, and write smart.
Sample Essay
Heres a sample essay written for the abbreviated prompt Every Advance Involves Some Loss or Sacrifice. The
essay has an introduction, three body paragraphs (examples from history, literature and personal experience) and
a conclusion.

Most people in America, if not the world, would agree that every advance involves some
sacrifice. In fact, a common sports adage proclaims: No pain, no gain. In other words, progress is
always accompanied by a certain amount of loss. This concept is illustrated throughout history,
literature and personal experience.

One compelling illustration that some bad always accompanies some good is demonstrated in
the Civil Rights movement. In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white
person. Although she was arrested and jailed, her brave efforts inspired the Montgomery Bus
Boycott which lasted for over a year. Martin Luther King was inspired by her example and
became known as one of the most admired figures of the Civil Rights movement. He organized
hundreds of nonviolent protests and gave an unforgettable speech entitled I have a dream.
Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks helped get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. Unfortunately,
this social progress was accompanied by a tragic sacrifice: the assassination of Dr. King by a
southern madman.

The theme that every advance involves some loss also occurs in Nathaniel Hawthornes novel,
The Scarlet Letter. The protagonist, Hester Prynne, is charged with adultery and is forced to wear
a scarlet letter A embroidered on her dress. Although the Puritan community shuns her for her
sins, Hester decides to reform her character by doing selfless charity work. As a result of her
philanthropic character, the society changes its view of Hester and eventually thinks of the
scarlet A on her dress as representing the word, Able. Through her hard work and sacrifice,
Hester is able to move forward with her life and become a valued member of the community.

A final illustration that progress always involves a loss occurred in my own personal experience
building houses in Mexico with my church group. During the summer of my junior year in high
school, I traveled with a small group to Guadalajara to help construct lowincome housing for the
poor. At first, I was appalled at the extent of the poverty around me and longed to return home
to enjoy the rest of my summer lounging by the swimming pool. However, these thoughts soon
departed when we finally got to work. Arranged in teams, we developed a sense of common
purpose and community spirit while helping those less privileged than ourselves. Consequently, I
learned the value of hard work and group sacrifice. As our church leader remarked, You give up
a little, in order that other people may gain a lot.

As seen in these historic, literary and personal experience examples, every advance is
accompanied by inevitable suffering. However, with perseverance and planning, even the worst
setbacks can be overcome. This notion is particularly relevant to our lives today for the world is
undergoing change at an alarming rate. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, You may be
disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you dont try.

So, there it is a classic fiveparagraph essay with a good intro, serviceable conclusion, and three reusable pet
paragraphs. Reusable since these three content examples Civil Rights, Scarlet Letter and the Church Group
personal experience contain sufficient acts of historical importance, social drama, obstacles overcome and
challenges met to support almost all prompts that come your way. The trick, of course, is to know how to define
the prompt to fit your content examples.
Notice how:

The introduction of the essay sets the scene with a broad, general statement, which is followed by a wellknown
quote that supplies context to the prompt.

Most people in America, if not the world, would agree that every advance involves some sacrifice.
In fact, a common sports adage proclaims: No pain, no gain.

The secondtothelast sentence of the introduction defines the topic. This is your thesis statement and is the
central point around which your essay revolves.

In other words, progress is always accompanied by a certain amount of loss.

The last sentence of the introduction acts as a transition to prepare the reader for the body paragraphs that
follow.

This concept is illustrated throughout history and literature.

Each body paragraph starts with a transition sentence that recaps the topic.

One compelling illustration that some bad always accompanies some good is demonstrated in the
Civil Rights movement.

The theme that every advance involves some loss is also demonstrated in Nathaniel Hawthornes
novel, The Scarlet Letter.

A final illustration that progress always involves a loss occurred in my own personal experience
building houses in Mexico with my church group.

Each body paragraph supplies lowlevel supporting detail for the topic sentence.

In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person . . .

The protagonist, Hester Prynne, is charged with adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet letter A
embroidered on her dress . . .

At first, I was appalled at the extent of the poverty around me and longed to return home to
enjoy the rest of my summer lounging by the swimming pool.

The conclusion starts with a transition sentence that recaps the topic.

As seen in these historic, literary and personal experience examples, every

advance is accompanied by inevitable suffering.

The conclusion closes the sale with a general statement and a quote from an apparent authority that has some
broad relevance to the topic.

This notion is particularly relevant to our lives today for the world is undergoing change at an
alarming rate. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, You may be disappointed if you fail, but you
are doomed if you dont try.
AVOID

Avoid the words of course and obviously. Even clearly is dangerous in an essay like this except possibly in a
concluding sentence. Rationale: if its obvious, its not worth stating.

Dont try to say too much in any one sentence. A sentence should express one complete thought, not 2 or 3.

Avoid overcapitalization.

Avoid absolutes that can be defeated with a single exception. Generally, for the most part, and usually are
saver words than absolutes like always, certainly, sure, and definitely.

Avoid double negatives.

Strongly consider avoiding semi-colons and dashes. Commas and periods are still the core of good punctuation.

Formatting

Rather than erase, and far better than drawing arrows, the preference is to LEAVE A RIGHT MARGIN. This
allows you to neatly add a full sentence in the most appropriate space.

Deletions: do a one-line cross-out. Erasing is messy and time consuming. And, some readers like seeing the
students original thought and his/her improvement.

STRATEGY

1. Think of 5 novels/stories/books youve read and know well.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Hamlet
Romeo & Juliet
1984 (George Orwell)
The Old Man and the Sea
ETC

2. Think of 5 examples, real or hypothetical, of people who made mistakes.

3. What 3 subjects do you know well?

4. Think of at least 5 good quotes that could be appropriate at the beginning of an essay. Add these to your list:

Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them (Einstein)

Im not afraid of dying I just dont want to be there when it happens! (Woody Allen)
We make war that we may live in peace (Aristotle)
Delay is preferable to error (Jefferson)
The ballot is stronger than the bullet (Lincoln)
If you judge people, you have no time to love them (Mother Teresa)
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to. (Mark Twain)
Adults are just obsolete children(Dr. Seuss)